Called To Rise

A young boy approached his mother. “I want to burn the house down.” The mother looked at her son and shrugged her shoulders. She followed her son to the garage and proceeded to help him gather items to burn. They heaped the lawnmower and fuel in a pile, with other items that would quickly burn.  The mother handed the boy cardboard and matches and told him to light the fuel-soaked rags with the cardboard. Her son struggled to light the cardboard as she and her Husband gathered more fuel for the fire. The father noticed him struggling and jumped in to help. Finally, Ignition! They held the burning cardboard to the pile, and rapidly, it began to burn. Black smoke rose to the ceiling and billowed out as the flames rose. The mother and father grabbed the boy and ran into the house to get their other children out before the whole house went up in flames. The house rapidly began to fill with smoke as the blaze grew into an inferno. The two parents gathered their children and ran to the driveway, narrowly escaping danger. They stood in the driveway, shocked by the destruction unfolding before them. The mother paced back and forth, tormented by what they had done.

She agonized over why she had allowed her son to build the fire and not just allowed but helped him to do it. How could she have been so foolish? She asked her husband if he had called the fire department, hoping they would come quickly. As the fire burned, her thoughts turned to how she would explain the disaster. What could she possibly say to explain the situation? If anyone found out, no insurance would cover the damage. Her panic rose with the flames as she thought of all that was being destroyed. She wrestled within herself, trying to convince herself that this could be a good thing. She attempted to ease her guilt by working to convince herself they would be able to start over.  Reality argued with her, as she thought to herself, “Not if anyone found out What she had done.” She continued in her thoughts, “I have to make sure my son knows what to say. Make sure he doesn’t speak the truth.” As she tried to gain control of the situation, she looked up and saw her husband had put out the fire and was calling her to come inside with the children.

She approached the house, Afraid of the damage she would find. She walked through the front door, thinking they would need to stay in a hotel. There was no way the house could be inhabitable. The smoke damage alone was sure to drive them out. As she entered the house, she was shocked there was no damage and not even a hint of smoke in the air. 

I woke from the dream filled with confusion and disgusted with myself that I had allowed, encouraged, and even helped my son build a fire to burn down my home. When I first woke, I thought I had just had a very bizarre dream, but I asked the Lord why I would do that without realizing I was asking. To my surprise, the Lord said, “You wouldn’t let Your son burn down the house, so why are you allowing your enemy to?” Taken aback by the question, I adamantly denied doing any such thing, then asked, “How am I allowing the enemy to burn down my home?” I asked with a list of everything I was doing right at the ready to defend myself, but before I could rattle them off, the Lord spoke.

“Complicity and Complacency are the same as permission, the enemy is announcing his intention to burn the house down with every attack, and when you tolerate it, you are not only giving him permission, you are helping him to do it. You wouldn’t allow the kids to do it and wouldn’t do it yourself, but your enemy goes unchecked. He is building the foundation for an attack, and you are sitting idly by. When will you use the authority I gave you and put him in his place? Stop tolerating the whispers of your enemy and the feeler attacks meant to disorient you and give him the temperature of your faith .”

I lay stunned in my bed. My head filled with all the little things eating away at me. I thought about the list of tiny choices that each equated to surrender when I should have stood my ground in faith. At 5:45 am, I pulled my tired body out of bed and sought the Lord’s forgiveness.  Without actually realizing what had been happening, I could now see that little by little, the enemy had been taking little jabs at me over and over the past several months, and I had done nothing to stop him. I had been lulled to sleep and become complacent in pursuing God’s promises. Rather than chasing my enemy out of my life, I started tolerating him.

The enemy knows human nature better than we do ourselves. He has studied us long enough to know exactly how to gain access. He knows for those who recognize his attacks; a full-on assault would immediately call us to attention and have us ready for battle. So he steals in like a thief, aiming to keep you unaware of his attack. He hits you just hard enough that you feel it but not enough for you to think to pull out your weapons. 

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16 NKJV).

 Interestingly, the Lord tells us to be as wise as serpents. If a rattlesnake knows you are even nearby, he doesn’t wait for you to be a threat before he gives you a warning. He coils up, announces his position, and ensures you know he is ready to strike. 

When our enemy comes near us, we shouldn’t let him test the waters unchallenged. We should be ready. Announce our position of authority,  which is being seated with Christ far above every power and principality on this earth. We should let our enemy know that our Sword is at the ready, Charged with the power of Life and death as we speak with Confidence, the Word of God.   Our enemy has no authority except for that authority we give him by coming into agreement with his lies. ”Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9). 
The scripture says, LIKE a roaring lion seeking who he MAY devour… I love this scripture because it reminds us the enemy is a great deceiver. He acts like he is a lion, but he is not one, and he is looking for permission to devour you, only you can give that permission through the power of agreement.

When he attacks, and we do nothing about it, thinking it will get better if we just keep moving along, we become complicit in his plot against us;  and like the dream I shared, as discouragement and frustration set in, we start heaping fuel onto the fire meant to destroy us.  Our thoughts and words have no neutral ground. You are either going to agree with Satan or agree with God. This is why our mind is the battlefield. Nothing comes out of your mouth that wasn’t first in your head/heart. Paul warns us,  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Far too often, I find myself tolerating the little attacks not because I don’t recognize the attack or their illegal nature but because I think it’s not big enough to have my attention. This is partially correct. We shouldn’t get rattled when the enemy announces his intentions, but we should put him in his place so he knows clearly where he stands. It is easy to get an idea in our head that battling the enemy takes a lot of effort, so we put it off until it gets big enough to warrant the effort. However, when we live on the ready, armed with the word of God, and actively use our weapons by casting down every thought that exalts itself above the word of the Lord and Confessing The word of God over our situation. We can defend our position from a place of peace and rest.  This is what that looks like in real life.

Know The Word Of God.


I am a faithful tither, and I know the word of God Says in Malachi, 
 “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts;” (Malachi 3:10).

There is so much power in knowing the word of God. These two verses alone are packed full of promise and power. If your health is under attack, that is the enemy trying to devour your good health, which is promised by God.  “And the Lord will take away from you all sickness…”(Deuteronomy 7:15). God Promises to take away ALL sickness, so if there is sickness in your body, it is certainly covered by ALL. So with Deuteronomy and Malachi, we know that sickness in our body is against the word of God, and God has promised to rebuke the devil for devouring our promised good health. Knowing the word of God not only helps me recognize the attack of the enemy it also prepared me to deal with the attack effectively. 


Believe The Word Of God.


Believing the word of God is as simple as knowing who He is. God is His word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). He is faithful and never fails. He never gives up on us, even when we give up on Him. Knowing Who God is empowers us to stay steadfast in our faith. The Lord is faithful to keep His word; in fact, the Word says He is actively watching over it to perform it. If God’s word promises something, it is not a maybe I’ll do this. The Lord is saying I will, and He can not go back on His word. WE can not judge God by our experience of Man. When a man gives us his word, it is subject to change. But that is not the character of God. He is unchanging. He Promises that his Word Can not return empty; it must do what he has sent it to do.

For with God, nothing will be impossible The new living translation says it perfectly: “For the word of God will never fail.”

(Luke 1:37)

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”

(Isaiah 55:11).




Act Upon Faith, Not Fear.


The enemy announces his intentions with an attack, whether it is a report from the doctor, a symptom in your body, news of lost income, or a bill collector hounding you for payment. This is the enemy saying, “I am in control; I can take whatever I want, whenever I want, and you can’t do anything about it.” This is where the battle for faith over fear starts. When that symptom or bad report comes, your mind will immediately want to go to the worst-case scenario to prepare for impact. But that is what the devil wants. He starts with his fiery darts and then bombards you with what-ifs.

The Lord reminded me recently that I am hedged in with a wall of God’s protection. I am on the inside, and my enemy is on the outside. All he can do is make a lot of noise to try and scare me out of my safe haven. “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you against the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). We get scared out of that place of protection when we allow the lie of the enemy to supersede the truth of the word of God. When that news comes and all the ifs come knocking, you choose faith over fear by resisting the devil’s negative report and replacing it with the truth of God. When you first start doing this, you will have to repeat the exercise several times, most likely back to back—rejecting the report of the enemy and filling the space with truth. James says it like this, “So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

The devil wants us to move and take action on our fears of what if. However when we stand in faith and refuse to engage in the battle on the devil’s terms but rather stand firmly grounded in the truth of God’s promises, we move the battle from the devil’s arena who is the prince and power of the air” (Ephesians 2;2), onto hallowed ground where the dominion of Christ is firmly established in us. The apostle Paul says we are seated with Christ in heavenly places far above all principalities, powers, dominion, and mite and every name that is named.  [paraph Ephesians 1;21 and 2:6]  That is our place of authority, and we stay rooted in that when we choose the word of God over the report of the enemy. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to fight my battles in the arena of heaven ruled by the unchanging God who faithfully promises victory. I refuse to fight in the flesh from a place of torment where the devil can use his wiley schemes to lie and deceive. I will choose faith and truth over fear and torment every time. 

One last thing I think is important to note. God’s Grace is sufficient. ”But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me”(2nd Corinthians 12:9). I couldn’t help but notice in this dream God used to bring correction: that though I messed up and fell short, I did not pay the repercussions of my actions. In the dream, I made choices that should have destroyed my family and my home, but when we turned and corrected our path, there was no damage to be seen. As a mom, I find it easy to look at my mistakes over the years and think I have cost my children dearly. I think this is the same for people who look over their mistakes and think well, I have ruined my chances with X, Y, or Z. The truth, however, is that God has made room for us. His grace covers our mistakes, and He is just looking for an invitation to restore what has been lost.  God is a redeemer, and no matter what our past choices have cost us, when we return to Him, He is more than able to bring complete restoration. If you, like me, see your mistakes and are tempted to be self-critical, reject the invitation and remind yourself of how big your God is. After all, God has a long history of cleaning up the messes of those who love Him and bringing victory in spite of there shortcomings.